Instrument Node.js applications with OpenTelemetry

To instrument automatically, install the following packages:

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npm install @opentelemetry/api
npm install @opentelemetry/auto-instrumentations-node
npm install @opentelemetry/sdk-trace-base
npm install @opentelemetry/sdk-node

To instrument manually, install the packages below and add the code snippet below to any Nodejs method you want to monitor. Set names for the tracer, the span, and add attributes as you see fit.

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npm install @opentelemetry/api
npm install @opentelemetry/sdk-trace-base
npm install @opentelemetry/sdk-node

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const opentelemetry = require('@opentelemetry/api');

const span = opentelemetry.trace.getTracer('my-tracer').startSpan('my-span'); //TODO Add names for tracer and span
span.setAttribute('my-key-1', 'my-value-1'); //TODO Add attributes

//TODO your code goes here

span.end();

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/* opentelemetry.js */
const opentelemetry = require("@opentelemetry/sdk-node");
const { getNodeAutoInstrumentations } = require("@opentelemetry/auto-instrumentations-node"); //TODO remove this line when using the manual instrumentation
const { AlwaysOnSampler } = require("@opentelemetry/sdk-trace-base");

const sdk = new opentelemetry.NodeSDK({
    sampler: new AlwaysOnSampler(),
    instrumentations: [getNodeAutoInstrumentations()] //TODO remove this line when using the manual instrumentation
});

sdk.start();

To pass Resource Attributes into your traces, you need to set them as environment variables separately.
In this example, we set the service.name as node-quickstart and the service.version as 1.0.1.

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export OTEL_RESOURCE_ATTRIBUTES=service.version=1.0.1,service.name=node-quickstart

The following extra packages are required:

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npm install @opentelemetry/exporter-trace-otlp-proto
npm install @opentelemetry/resources
npm install @opentelemetry/semantic-conventions
npm install properties-reader

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/* opentelemetry.js */
const fs = require('fs');

const opentelemetry = require('@opentelemetry/sdk-node');
const { getNodeAutoInstrumentations } = require('@opentelemetry/auto-instrumentations-node'); //TODO remove this line when using the manual instrumentation
const { Resource } = require('@opentelemetry/resources');
const { SemanticResourceAttributes } = require('@opentelemetry/semantic-conventions');
const { OTLPTraceExporter } = require("@opentelemetry/exporter-trace-otlp-proto");
const { AlwaysOnSampler } = require("@opentelemetry/sdk-trace-base");

const propertiesReader = require('properties-reader');

const OTLPoptions = {
    url: '<URL>', //TODO Replace <URL> to your SaaS/Managed-URL as mentioned in the next step
    headers: {
        Authorization: 'Api-Token <TOKEN>' //TODO Replace <TOKEN> with your API Token as mentioned in the next step
    },
};

let dtmetadata = new Resource({})
for (let name of ['dt_metadata_e617c525669e072eebe3d0f08212e8f2.properties', '/var/lib/dynatrace/enrichment/dt_metadata.properties']) {
  try {
    dtmetadata = dtmetadata.merge(new Resource(name.startsWith('/var') ? propertiesReader(name).getAllProperties() : propertiesReader(fs.readFileSync(name).toString()).getAllProperties()))
  } catch { }
};

const otlpExporter = new OTLPTraceExporter(OTLPoptions);

const sdk = new opentelemetry.NodeSDK({
    sampler: new AlwaysOnSampler(),
    traceExporter: otlpExporter,
    instrumentations: [getNodeAutoInstrumentations()], //TODO remove this line when using the manual instrumentation
    resource: new Resource({
        [SemanticResourceAttributes.SERVICE_NAME]: 'nodejs-quickstart', //TODO Replace with the name of your application
        [SemanticResourceAttributes.SERVICE_VERSION]: '1.0.1', //TODO Replace with the version of your application
    }).merge(dtmetadata),
});

sdk.start();

Lastly, you need to define the correct endpoint and token, to make sure your data arrives where it should be.

• To set the endpoint:
  1. Use your Environment ID to set the endpoint to which your app will send traces as follows:
     • Dynatrace SaaS https://{your-environment-id}.live.dynatrace.com/api/v2/otlp/v1/traces
     • Dynatrace Managed https://{your-domain}/e/{your-environment-id}/api/v2/otlp/v1/traces
     • Dynatrace ActiveGate https://{your-activegate-endpoint}/e/{your-environment-id}/api/v2/otlp/v1/traces
       • You may need to include the port to your ActiveGate endpoint. For example:
         • https://{your-activegate-endpoint}:9999/e/{your-environment-id}/api/v2/otlp/v1/traces
       • If you are running a containerized ActiveGate, you need to use the FQDN of it. For example:
         • https://{your-activegate-service-name}.dynatrace.svc.cluster.local/e/{your-environment-id}/api/v2/otlp/v1/traces
  2. Replace <URL> in the code snippet above with your endpoint.
• To create an authentication token
  1. In the Dynatrace menu, go to Access tokens and select Generate new token.
  2. Provide a Token name.
  3. In the Search scopes box, search for Ingest OpenTelemetry traces and select the checkbox.
  4. Select Generate token.
  5. Select Copy to copy the token to your clipboard.
  6. Save the token in a safe place; you can't display it again.
  7. Replace <TOKEN> in the code snippet above with your token.